Before seeing anything, Eden felt a pulling force. It felt like gravity, yet different.
That was no real gravity, however. He had been sent to a land of infinite darkness, through which Eden could only see thanks to his True Sight.
It was hard to properly point up, down, left or right. However, one very obvious landmark was the black hole-like structure pulling at him.
Not just him, actually, but everything, be it the creatures unfortunate enough to have landed in this place, but the fabric of the world itself was also being pulled.
A moment later, Eden noticed something he had missed, simply because it was not there. The Weave.
That was not to say there was no mana, there was plenty of it and some more in fact, but Mystra's Weave was not present. This place was beyond her reach.
Eden also felt there was something strange with his connection to his Simulacrum. He tried sending it information, and while it was sent, he got no response. He did not feel like there was anything wrong with it on the other end, which did not explain the lack of response.
Back to the place itself, the deepest layer of the Abyss if the Dead Three's spell had worked properly, which it probably had, the black hole did not just pull at everything, but it also emitted something.
Something foul. Even necrotic energy felt tame in comparison to it, it was an all pervading force that attempted to burrow into everything around it, including Eden.
[Wisdom Check…]
[Wisdom Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
Well, at least his Talent had not just stopped functioning.
Ignoring the continuous attribute checks that followed, Eden took out his notebook, and used Inscribe on it to reproduce the spell circle the Dead Three's spell had created.
However, as the spell circle was inscribed inside, the notebook suddenly started crumbling away. Taken aback, Eden saw it disappear between his hands, its contents vanishing.
This was bad, as that could have been his way out, and Inscribe only worked for something he could see, or had seen very recently.
More troubling, however, was his equipment, which was also slowly being eroded. His armor, as the only Super Rare equipment he had, was holding on fine for now, but the rest, which were Rare or lower, were visibly being damaged.
While Eden examined his equipment though, he heard a loud roar, and looking up, saw a giant monster rushing at him. It was a giant double Eden's height, made of rocks and fire, with thick horns and eyes ablaze. It almost looked like a Minotaur, but much bigger, and wreathed in flames. It also had a pair of bat-like wings. It wielded a flaming whip, and a longsword covered in lightning.
[Name: Chare'en]
[Title: Demon of Overwhelming Rage]
[Perks: Tier II, Demonic Strength II, Body of Hatred II, Abyssal Flame II, True Sight, Magic Resistance II, Death Throes, Fire Aura]
[HP: 1200/1200]
[MP: 1200/1200]
[Strength: 80]
[Agility: 35]
[Physique: 60]
[Intelligence: 60]
[Wisdom: 39]
[Immunity: Fire II, Poison II]
[Resistances: Cold II, Lightning II]
[Weaknesses: None]
Those were good attributes. Fearsome, even.
But right now, Eden was pissed.
Maybe this development was born from his arrogance, at least partly, but it still annoyed him immensely to have been banished to the Abyss. That messed with his plans, badly.
The only good part was that several more strands of power were now attached to him, meaning that the Dead Three had not gotten out unscathed. That had been a full power Dismantle powered by an incantation, after all.
Still, he was pissed, and this Balor, fearsome as it could be, would make for the perfect punching bag. He had spells to test out anyway.
He was being arrogant again, wasn't he?
Dodging the fire whip, Eden placed all of his equipment into his Inventory, with the exception of Umbra Aegis.
His Rare Equipment was being corroded too fast, and it would be destroyed before the end of the fight if he kept them. Umbra Aegis, as a Super Rare piece of armor, showed better resistance, although Eden was sure that if kept out for too long, it would get destroyed as well. For this fight though, Eden would rather keep the armor on, since he was facing one of the most dangerous demons from the Abyss, a Balor.
As Eden was about to cast his spells however, the Balor suddenly teleported next to Eden, swinging down its lightning sword. Even with his Talent allowing him to see the attack coming, he was taken by surprise, and hit by the sword.
He managed to somewhat mitigate the damage with the help of his armor and covering the area with Cursed Energy, but even then, Eden felt a good chunk of his HP disappear as a large gash was created in his armor, and into his chest under that.
… so much for keeping the armor intact.
Moreover, now that Eden and the Balor were in such close proximity, he noticed that amidst the bellowing shadows, flames also danced around its form, burning anything in its proximity, which happened to be Eden.
Compared to the lightning sword, the flames were mild, but they were unavoidable.
As Eden retreated, the Balor looked at him with eyes full of madness, with no reason behind them, only a thirst for combat.
Flapping its wings, the Balor followed after Eden, whipping at him. Barely dodging it, Eden exclaimed, "I cast Tasha's Otherworldly Guise!"
Drawing magic from the Lower Planes, Eden's body rapidly transformed as his skin turned red, a pair of fiendish wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, and two symmetrical horns grow on his forehead.
The Balor's Flame Aura suddenly no longer bothered him, feeling more like a warm tickle than burning flames. Tasha's Otherworldly Guise, when used with mana from the Lower Planes, granted Fire Resistance II and Poison Resistance II, as well as 50 defence. All of that was further boosted by his Silver Fire, which made all his spells 20% more potent.
Even with the Tier Suppression, this was enough to counter the Balor's rather weak Flame Aura, although Eden did not doubt that fire whip would be another story, which was why he was not going to get hit by it.
Flapping his wings to bolster his speed, Eden drew some more distance from the Balor, who tried to catch him with its whip, but despite its mastery of its weapon, Eden managed to dodge it, and cast a second spell.
"I cast Wrath of the Dead."
Shadows wreathed Eden's hands as his preparations were complete. The Balor once more teleported, and this time Eden did not dodge, and went for the offensive instead, slamming his fist into its wrist.
There was a large power difference between the two of them, as without any equipment to boost it, Eden's Strength was at a mere 30, and that without any Perks either.
However, while Eden's fist did little to no damage, the energies mixed with it did.
First, the powerful necrotic energy slammed into the Balor, bypassing its physical defences, siphoning its life force away and transferring it to Eden to heal him.
Then, Eden's Cursed Energy also acted, a Maximum Output Cleave getting activated.
The result was a small gash being opened on the Balor's wrist, who completely ignored the injury, kicking at Eden instead.
For all its madness, the Balor was an experienced fighter, and one with much higher attributes than Eden. Unable to dodge the kick, Eden decided to roll with it instead, and as it slammed into his side, he sent a second fist into the side of its leg.
Despite rolling with it, it still hurt immensely, and felt like he had just been hit by a truck.
However, it did not put him down.
Weaving in between the attacks he could dodge, Eden kept up with the Balor, as with each hit the Balor landed, Eden made three, allowing him to heal himself. Moreover, as the first minute passed, Eden felt his mana reserves rapidly regenerating.
Whatever that energy was, it was extremely thick, and while nefarious, his Talent protected him, and allowed him to convert it into mana.
However, it was no easy fight, as Eden managed to hold on partly thanks to his armor, and with the blows multiplying, it became ruined beyond any use by the second minute, falling to the ground and leaving Eden naked.
Although having his highest ranked piece of equipment get destroyed pained Eden's heart, it was no wonder it ended in such a way. The Balor was high into Tier II, and Super Rare was only Tier I armor.
An Uncommon armor would not fare much better against a High Tier I.
With his armor getting destroyed, Eden found the fight to have suddenly become much harder. The Balor, despite his attacks, was still standing and with much of its HP at that.
Although Eden's attacks each dealt a theoretical 495 damage with Wrath of the Dead and Cleave put together, damage did not really work like that, and adding in the Tier Suppression, even after two minutes, Eden had only managed to get it down to around 1000. Honestly, it was Cleave doing most of the work.
Speaking of which, his Innate Technique was also wearing down with the continuous uses of the Maximum Output Cleave. It dealt good damage, but it was taxing on his Cursed Energy. For now, he still managed thanks to the passive regeneration of the many souls attached to him, as well as the fragments of divine power from the Dead Three, but the longer this went on, the worst it would get.
Gritting his teeth, Eden ducked under the lightning sword, and allowed the fire whip to hit him as he changed tactics, choosing to enhance his body, carefully enhancing the rights parts at the right time for maximum efficiency.
This considerably lowered the strain on his Cursed Energy, and every physical aspect of his was enhanced. Of course, in exchange, his damage output was lowered in accordance.
Still, Eden felt his previously mostly useless punches actually dig a few centimeters into the Balor's skin with each strike, dealing some actual damage. Moreover, not only did dodging become easier, but his strikes also become faster. Where he traded one blow for three before, it was one to five now.
Strange as it could sound, Eden found an unlikely equilibrium, and started taking the upper hand as he only increased in speed and strength, while the Balor became weaker.
Not only that, as Eden started learning the Balor's patterns. For all its experience, its mind had been completely ravaged by madness, and it fell into the techniques turned into instincts.
But while he was experiencing this, he suddenly experienced something strange. A mental message. From his Simulacrum.
However, unlike the usual communications, this one was very… slow? It felt like speaking with a very old computer, each character taking several seconds to transmit.
This made the message very hard to transcript, but the gist of it was simple enough. His own message had been extremely fast, almost impossible to follow. Since it was his Simulacrum, thus a copy of his mind, Eden was sure it had replied the moment it had gotten the message.
But that was precisely the problem. His Simulacrum and him shared a telepathic link that went beyond the concept of speed. Or it should. Technically, the only moments of pause were those taken to think about what they would send, which should not even take a second.
Yet here, it had taken several minutes. Adding in the differing speeds of the information received… it did not take a genius to figure out time had been fucked up.
Quite badly too, to stretch seconds, if not fractions of a second, into minutes.
Leaping, Eden reached for the sky, if the darkness above could count as such, and dodged the Balor's whip with a flap of his wings, maintaining his altitude as he made a perhaps rash and hasty decision.
Eden was not one for hesitation though, so as the Balor flew after him, Eden slapped his hands together, making a Binding Vow with himself.
[The Fruit of Patience: While in the current mission world, completely block the promotion to Tier II, keeping all pure attributes under 50, and slows down the growth of physical attributes to a tenth. Drastically increase talent for Magic and Sorcery.]
Maybe it was a rash decision. Maybe it would spell his death. And that was exactly what made this Binding Vow powerful.
Silently casting Misty Step, Eden traversed into the ethereal realm, but even that had been distorted by the black hole. Still, it carried him behind the Balor. Before it could figure out where he had landed, Eden grabbed the base of its wings, and activated a Maximum Output Cleave onto on of them.
Though it did not quite sever it, it weakened it. Jumping off of it, Eden saw the Balor try to stabilize, but flight had been rendered very hard.
Unleashing another roar of fury, it teleported back on the ground, but before it could even swing its sword, Eden dug his fist into its liver, or the Balor's equivalent.
As mentioned before, Eden had learned its moves, and the teleportations had become predictable, as had the rest of its move-set.
However, as Eden was about to lay into it, he suddenly had a premonition of danger, and jumped just in time to avoid an attack. Not from the Balor, but another demon. Actually, scratch that, it did not look like a demon.
It was tall. Around six meters tall. Its black skin constantly emitted necrotic energy, so much so it almost seemed like its body itself was made of shadows. It towered over him, and had just attempted to slice him in half with one of its giant claws. He had not sensed it coming until the last moment.
[Name: Nightwalker]
[Title: N/A]
[Perks: Tier II, Darkvision, Dead Strength II, Resilience of the Dead II, Annihilating Aura, Life Eater, Unusual Nature.]
[HP: 1470/1470]
[MP: 140/140]
[Strength: 60]
[Agility: 47]
[Physique: 70]
[Intelligence: 14]
[Wisdom: 16]
[Immunity: Necrotic II, Poison II]
[Resistances: Acid II, Cold II, Fire II, Lightning II, Thunder II, Bludgeoning II, Piercing II, Slashing II]
[Weaknesses: Radiant III]
It looked down at him with zero emotions, before pointing one of its fingers at him as he attempted to fly away. Eden tried to dodge, but it was next to impossible since it was simply pointing a finger.
[Physique Check…]
[Physique Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
The spell bumped harmlessly against Eden, and before the Nightwalker could try anything else, the Balor coiled its fire whip around its throat, and stabbed its lightning sword into its guts.
The Nightwalker barely looked bothered by the attacks, but it did turn its attention to the demon. It had tanked the blow quite well, probably thanks to its Lightning Resistance. The Nightwalker was a real nightmare of a tank, and its only weakness, to Radiant damage, was at Tier III, meaning any Radiant damage under Tier III would fail to activate it.
Seeing this, Eden took some more altitude, which gave him a better view of their surroundings, and realized that monsters of all kinds were converging on their position. The weakest among them were High Tier I, and many were Tier II.
One stood out among the rushing monsters though. It was Gnoll, except a giant version, easily as tall as the Nightwalker and as thick as the Balor. It wielded a giant axe, was dressed in furs, and had several dozens of Gnolls and Hyenas following it.
Far more importantly, however, was something only visible to Eden's True Sight. Around it was a large dome, nearly a hundred meters in radius. It was completely invisible, but permeated the world, latching onto it and nullified the influence of the black hole. This was no mere monster.
[Name: Gorellik]
[Title: Demigod, Ancient God of the Gnolls]
[Perks: Tier II, Godly Strength III, Godly Constitution III, Domain of the Hyena, True Sight, Aura of Frenzy, Monstrous Regeneration]
[HP: 2400/2400]
[MP: 370/370]
[Strength: 80]
[Agility: 37]
[Physique: 80]
[Intelligence: 37]
[Wisdom: 37]
[Immunity: Poison III, Bludgeoning III, Piercing III, Slashing III]
[Resistances: Cold II, Fire II, Lightning II, Magical Bludgeoning II, Magical Piercing II, Magical Slashing II]
[Weaknesses: None]
If there had been any hesitation before, which there had not been, Eden did not hesitate for a single second to escape now.
Gorellik's attributes might not be immensely high, his Perks revealed the kind of being he was. A divine one.
Eden did not know whether this was an avatar of some kind, or a fallen god of some kind, but whichever it was, it was not something he could just fight.
Despite the small number of Perks he had, not only were there two Tier III ones, but there was also this domain.
The other beings clearly did not share his reservations though, simply treating him as another foe. That was a grave mistake, as the moment they entered his domain, they visibly became weaker and slower.
Even though Eden left as soon as he saw Gorellik, the Balor had been pretty messed up by him already, and so it was one of the first to fall. As Gorellik drove his axe into the Balor's skull however, the demon released a dying wail, and burst into an enormous explosion.
Despite the distance, even Eden felt the shockwave as everything that had been around the Balor was not only pushed back, but also covered in flames. Many of the hyenas died with that, and others were greatly injured.
Eden felt fortunate he had not killed it himself now, as that would have certainly harmed him quite a bit, Fire Resistance or not.
As Eden escaped, he received a notification from his system.
[Side Mission (Escape the Abyss): You were cast down to the lowest layer of the Abyss by the combined power of the Dead Three. Escape from the Abyss before the end of your main mission.]
[Side Mission (Conquer the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss): You somehow found your way to the lowest layer of the Abyss, where beings are to be forgotten until the end of times. Corrupted with madness, all of its inhabitants seek to destroy. Tame this layer of the Abyss, becoming its Lord.]
Eden scoffed at the second mission, and flew away.